The 21-year-old superstar makes no secret anymore of his wish to play in the Spanish La Liga, where Barcelona and Real Madrid are waiting for him.
Haaland will become available for $85 million in the summer, with the biggest clubs in the world readying their offers to convince him. The Norwegian is a transfer target for the likes of FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich. After Dortmund’s CEO confirmed in December that “Real Madrid is really interested” in signing the player, basically positioning them as frontrunners in the battle for Haaland, now Erling himself made his intentions heard. During a walk in Marbella, where he’s spending part of his winter holiday, Haaland spoke to a group of fans who wanted to know where his future lies.
“I will be playing here, in Spain,” he said smiling.
Haaland, ready for his next step
Haaland netted 76 times for Dortmund in the 75 games he played at the club, beating record after record in his two years at Signal Iduna Park. The Norwegian held talks with his agent Mino Raiola about the opportunities on their table. During an interview with Sport1 in Germany, Raiola spoke openly about his client’s future, naming Real Madrid and FC Barcelona among his potential destinations.
“He can and will take the next step,” Raiola said. “Bayern, Real, Barcelona, City – these are the big clubs he can go to. City has won the championship five times in recent years, significantly more than United. When Haaland moved to Dortmund, we all knew that this step would come,” the agent added.
Talking about the right timing for Haaland’s move, Raiola said “a strange summer” sits ahead, but Erling is likely to depart in 2022 rather than 2023: “Maybe [he’ll go] this summer, maybe the summer after. But there is a great chance that Erling will leave this summer.”
The bookies aren’t being influenced by Raiola’s words and place Paris Saint-Germain as favorites to sign Haaland. The French giants are at +500, ahead of Manchester City at +800, Bayern Munich at +1,100, Real Madrid and Chelsea at +1,500 and Barcelona and Manchester United at +3,200.
Before signing Romelu Lukaku for a club-record transfer fee of $135 million, Chelsea tried to enter talks with Dortmund for Haaland. The Champions League winners were ready to bid $210 million, but BVB stood firm confirming publicly that Erling was not moving no matter how big an offer came their way.
